Beneficiary Participation in Irrigation Water Management: The Kerala

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Renovation and rehabilitation of early irrigation systems is acknowledged as essential all over the world, especially in countries in South and South East Asia (eg: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Nepal, Srilanka, Thailand, Pakistan, Soviet Union, and Vietnam). It comprises levelling and grading of land, consolidation of holdings, and rectangulation. The question as to who should bear the costs of renovation and rehabilitation remains, however, unsettled. In many countries, the responsibility was left to the beneficiary farmers; they failed to execute the task in most of the cases since technical knowledge and financial ability was required, which normally farmers did not possess. In some other countries, it was done by the project authority itself as part of the project. A compromise between the two approaches is also advocated by many. The government should stimulate the interest of the farmers to carry out improvements in their farms; this, government should do, by providing technical advice and a part of the finance. The underlying idea behind on-farm development (OFD) when undertaken in the public sector is that every farmer is intrinsically interested in OFD activities and that he does not do it simply because he does not have the required technical skill, machinery, and finance. Therefore the public administration does the work in consultation with the farmer. The government meets a part of the cost, leaving the other part to be borne by the farmer, on the basis of a contract signed between the two. It is executed as a national programme with a large degree of financial and institutional autonomy. The project authority earmarks the total area to be covered during the life span of the programme, as also the priority regions and areas to be covered, each year. The general procedure is to concentrate on a particular region first and complete the work there, and then proceed to the area of the next priority; this process goes on until the targeted area is covered completely. The major impediment to the implementation of such programmes is the immense cost involved, which many developing countries with scant foreign exchange resources, find difficult to meet. The next is OFD by the farmer himself. Under this, the farmer is supposed to be not only interested but capable of executing it as well. What he needs is some construction materials such as iron and cement, and some technical guidance for carrying out the different jobs. The available labour potential of the farming communities would be effectively employed to do the job rather than leaning on costly equipment and machinery for earth-moving. 13
3. Empirical Research on Irrigation Water Management: A review Literature on empirical studies on irrigation water management is vast. In this section, we review only the studies focusing on beneficiary participation, with particular attention on studies made in Asian and African countries, having socio-economic problems and agroclimatic conditions comparable to those of India. The study by George Chackacherry (1996), Irrigation Water Management with Farmer Participation in Kerala-problems and Prospects, focuses on the problems of beneficiary participation in irrigation water management. He has chosen 100 BFAs from Neyyar Project for field survey. The study has identified a few major issues involved in the irrigation water management system in Kerala. Though irrigated area has increased, productivity levels remain low and have not risen to any significant extent. The gap between irrigation potential created and utilised remains wide. He has rightly indicated the existing paradox of officials who are non-beneficiaries of irrigation controlling irrigation systems while the real beneficiaries, namely, farmers remain silent spectators. This paradox has, according to the author, debilitated scientific water utilisation and proper irrigation management. The major findings of his study are the following: (i) only 30 percent of the farmers became members of the Beneficiary Farmer’s Association (BFA), (ii) many farmers in the ayacut were unaware of such a thing as BFA (iii) introduction of CADA has benefited them to some extent though the major objectives of enhanced production and efficient, equitable water distribution could not be achieved, and (iv) efforts to impart among the beneficiary farmers, the principles of scientific agriculture, and scientific irrigation water management, through the instruments like seminars, symposia, and awareness-camps did not yield the expected results. The author calls for greater efforts to enlist beneficiary participation and the willing cocooperation of engineers and the bureaucracy. He enumerates the following reasons for the laxity in participation by the beneficiaries: (i) farmers are given responsibility without corresponding powers; (ii) there is mutual distrust between officials and farmers and also among farmers themselves; (iii) absence of effective, interested leadership for BFAs, since office-bearers in many of them were not real cultivators, (iv) declining interest in cultivation due to its non-profitability; and (v) non-implementation of structural reforms involving democratisation and decentralisation due to opposition from officials. The author rightly recommends a stoppage of new projects till the existing projects are made efficient, effective implementation of laws, better co-operation on the part of farmers among themselves and with the officials of CADA, a change of attitude on the part of officials, recognition of the role of BFAs and appreciation of their problems, and keeping of politics away from irrigation water management. The study concludes with an optimistic note that BFA has ushered in the beginning of structural reforms, and improvements are expected in the attitude of farmers, officials, and the public at large in favour of beneficiary participation in irrigation water management. However, the conclusion of the author that most of the BFAs out of the 3431 (which constitute the total of all irrigation projects as on March 1995) are incapable of existing socially seems to be questionable. 14
Page 1 and 2: Beneficiary Participation in Irriga
Page 3 and 4: Contents 1 Introduction 5 2 Concept
Page 5 and 6: No serious in-depth study of the ca
Page 7 and 8: The Malampuzha project has 15 Canal
Page 9 and 10: 2. Concepts, Theory, and Practice o
Page 11: of a few man-days of labour as is s
Page 15 and 16: Our interest is neither in the Prod
Page 17 and 18: The author points out how the press
Page 19 and 20: field level officers resemble the c
Page 21 and 22: fields and project demonstration fa
Page 23 and 24: To ameliorate the situation, the Eg
Page 25 and 26: development factors and processes,
Page 27 and 28: Canal Committee (CC) Canal Committe
Page 29 and 30: This fact was endorsed by both offi
Page 31 and 32: Renewal is given based on the lists
Page 33 and 34: Table 4.6 Details of General Body M
Page 35 and 36: Table 4.7 Details of Canal Committe
Page 37 and 38: Table 4.8 Nature of Decisions in Ca
Page 39 and 40: ecause of their vital importance to
Page 41 and 42: of the office-bearers and more than
Page 43 and 44: Table 4.13a Performance of Recurrin
Page 45 and 46: Table 4.13 c Performance of Recurri
Page 47 and 48: inclusion of ineligible persons in
Page 49 and 50: aspect. The reasons reported for in
Page 51 and 52: Table 4.14c Performance of Recurrin
Page 53 and 54: all farmers in an area did this act
Page 55 and 56: Table 4.15a Performance of Recurrin
Page 57 and 58: Table 4.15c Performance of Recurrin
Page 59 and 60: 5. Performance, Administration, and
Page 61 and 62: level of less than one-third [Table
Page 63 and 64:
management function, with an expert
Page 65 and 66:
the critical phases of growth of pl
Page 67 and 68:
Lack of adequate co-operation of th
Page 69 and 70:
The failure in the working of BFAs
Page 71 and 72:
To sum up: past experience of the w
Page 73 and 74:
Table 6.1 Measures of Reforms 74
Page 75 and 76:
“Extending better official co-ope
Page 77 and 78:
Table 6.3 Staying in the area of op
Page 79 and 80:
(ii) Entrust water charges collecti
Page 81 and 82:
7. Summary and Conclusions Most irr
Page 83 and 84:
of using less cement than is requir
Page 85 and 86:
Appendix - I Number of Beneficiary
Page 87 and 88:
Appendix III List of Canal Committe
Page 89 and 90:
BFA Sample’ Name of C.C/BFA Reg.
Page 91 and 92:
the assumed losses of 11 to 20 perc
Page 93 and 94:
34 The NIA was a government corpora
Page 95 and 96:
References Bagodion, Benjamin U.
Page 97:
Silva, De, N. G. R. “Involvement
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Beneficiary Participation in Irrigation Water Management: The Kerala

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